Write to File open in Second Function (Python)

Question

I currently have the below function within my code:-

def openFiles():
    file1 = open('file1.txt', 'w')
    file2 = open('file2.txt', 'w')

What I'm hoping to do is now, in a second method is to write to the open file. However, whenever I try to write to the files using for example "file1.write("hello")", an error is returned informing me that "global variable 'file1' is not defined". I've tried declaring 'file1' as a string at the beginning of my code but obviously, as it isn't a string but an object, I'm unsure how to write to it.

Any suggestions? I want a number of functions to have access to the files hence why I'd like a separate function that opens them.

Thanks

Edited to represent a Class

class TestClass:
    def openFiles():
        file1 = open('file1.txt', 'w')
        file2 = open('file2.txt', 'w')

    def write_to_files():
        ????????

Answer 1

You can use python global keyword as shown below.

def openFiles():
    global file1
    global file2
    file1 = open('file1.txt', 'w')
    file2 = open('file2.txt', 'w')

def writeFiles():
    file1.write("hello")

openFiles()
writeFiles()

However I would recommend you use a class for this instead. For example.

class FileOperations:
    def open_files(self):
        self.file1 = open('file1.txt', 'w')
        self.file2 = open('file2.txt', 'w')

    def write_to_files(self):
        self.file1.write("hello")

You can then do:

>>> fileHandler = FileOperations()
>>> fileHandler.open_files()
>>> fileHandler.write_files()